| Harry Lengsfield | ||||||
Harry Lengsfield IS a life-long debt person. His senior positions have included global head of real estate and structured finance, head of US treasury trading, head of global debt real estate and mortgages and head of EMEA credit – all at one firm.
Defying the normal trend for senior bankers to switch firms every few years, the last 16 years of his career, since he joined as a senior trader on the strips desk in New York, have all been at Merrill Lynch.
Lengsfield’s latest position is head of EMEA debt markets at the firm, taking over from TJ Lim, who recently left after two years in the job. In June, Lengsfield moved to London from New York where he has been chief operating officer of global debt markets.
The place to be
For someone who has already held a senior European debt role, he is enthusiastic about the job. “Compared with other debt market opportunities in the world, Europe is probably the best,” he says. “I know there’s a lot of great structuring opportunities that are offered in Europe that aren’t offered in the States. I also think the cyclical move out of equities into debt will continue for a couple of years and Europe should be a great beneficiary of that.”
He may be looking forward to the job but he will certainly have his work cut out. Lengsfield will also remain COO, responsible for global debt markets infrastructure and support functions, including finance marketing, Merrill’s debt risk council and communications. Until a successor is found, he is also to going to keep responsibility for the global principal investments group, Canadian debt business and e-commerce initiatives.
“Nothing’s easy but I think it’s very manageable to do both. Having the COO in London highlights the importance of the European franchise while making it less bureaucratic to get European deals completed. I think I will just have to rely a bit more heavily on the many capable individuals in the US to take on a bit more responsibility.”
Lengsfield is also confident that he will not have to face the slog of constant transatlantic trips and says he can easily do the COO part of his job from London. “The COO job outside of Europe is internal, so it’s not as critical to be in New York. The European job includes the infrastructure, risk-taking and customer components of the business. If the relationship aspect of the job is in Europe, I’d rather spend all my time here.”
The other advantage is that Dow Kim, head of global debt markets, is based in New York. Lengsfield, who will report to Kim, has worked with him for years and says Kim will soon get involved.
“In addition to be being very intelligent, he is very hands on. So whether it’s a trade issue or any other concerns, he’s going to be very quick to respond,” Lengsfield says. “He’s probably read everything twice before you have anyway,” he adds wryly.
Kim says that Lengsfield has played an important role in re-engineering several trading groups, risk systems and businesses already at Merrill, so he will be hoping that Lengsfield can also boost the performance of the EMEA debt business. Indeed, Lengsfield has firm ideas about its future, including emphasizing sales and product solutions and continuing to grow the business in areas such as credit derivatives and structured finance. But he plans to keep up all the core businesses. “The emphasis will continue from the liquidity business, to derivatives, to being known as a very solid credit trading house,” he says. “There’s no reason for that to change.”
Lengsfield’s family is also moving back to London and in the process of securing school places. “My kids had a great experience in London before, so they want to get here sooner rather than later.” He is not anxious to move on again for a while either. “I started my career in New York, moved to London for two years, moved back to New York and now I’m back to London, so hopefully it will be for a very long time.”
There are other signs that he intends to stay. A keen supporter of Chelsea Football Club, his local team, he has already purchased his season ticket. “I don’t think locals appreciate that this is much more accessible in London. In the US, soccer or any other sport becomes an all-day event as advertisers control the sports franchises. If you walk down the King’s Road to Stamford Bridge to watch a game, it’s very pleasurable but over in two hours.”
Despite Merrill’s well-publicized problems in the past 12 months, Lengsfield remains happy there. He says the firm has a good culture which, unlike some of his competitors, doesn’t get tied up by too much internal competition.
